1. Technical Field
The embodiments of the present invention described herein generally relate to a system and method for vehicle side impact sensing.
2. Background Art
A cursory examination of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) crash database reveals that side accidents can occur under a large variety of circumstances and conditions. The NHTSA crash database also indicates that a large percentage of injuries and fatalities occur due to vehicle side impacts. Such injuries and fatalities due to vehicle side impacts fall just behind frontal impacts which are the leading cause of injuries and fatalities. The majority of accidents that occur for vehicle side impacts include a bullet vehicle smash of the side door of a host vehicle, or the slipping of the host vehicle which contacts a pole.
Recently, automakers have introduced advanced restraint systems for side impact protection. Side sensing algorithms incorporated within such advanced restraint systems are key in detecting the occurrence of a side impact. The restraint system deploys restraint devices for occupant protection in response to the side sensing algorithms detecting side impacts. Accordingly, it is beneficial to improve side sensing algorithms to detect side impact for early deployment of restraint systems for occupant safety.